. NMT05-T1032
Volume V · Page 1032
| camps. Originally, labor forces were made available only for enterprises operated by the SS; later, after August or September of 1942, inmates were turned over to the industries inside of Germany, as well as in the occupied territories. The defendant Sommer was released from the Waffen SS in 1941, by reason of incapacity caused by a foot wound. He was then assigned to DEST on 1 March, 1941. He met Pohl about the end of 1941, and met Maurer early in 1942. Later Mummenthey secured the appointment of Sommer to office D II, as collaborator of inmate labor assignment with Maurer. He entered upon his duties with D 11 on 5 May 1942, and worked with this Amt until about April 1945. He was first Maurer's co-worker, and at the end of 1943 became Maurer's deputy. He lived in Berlin until 1943, then moved his permanent residence to Oranienburg. |
| THE ALLOCATION OF INMATE
LABOR IN AMT D II OF THE WVHA |
| From all of the evidence in the case,
including the testimony of the defendant, he was thoroughly familiar with every
detail of Amt D II; its fields of task; training of inmates; allocation of
labor for all inmates, wherever located; the amount and kind of work performed
by them, their living conditions, treatment, food, clothing, and housing; the
camps from which they were assigned, and the industries to which they were
assigned; the payments made by the various industries for their work, the
payment for work, if any, to the inmates, and the collection of the money for
the work of the inmates from the various industries. The Tribunal was greatly impressed by the detailed information which the defendant had in regard to every aspect of inmate labor and its allocation. The defendant testified that after March 1944 Maurer told him that he could designate himself as a chief of a Main Department, which he did, and at the end of 1942, or early in 1943, he became the deputy of Maurer, chief of Amt D II. By order of Gluecks he was permitted to wear slack trousers while in uniform and at other times to wear civilian clothing on account of the wound in his foot. He further testified that he never knew of any prisoners being confined in a concentration camp except political prisoners and criminal inmates. Later, he saw some Russian prisoners of war that were volunteers, he claimed. The defendant testified that he personally visited every one of the concentration camps during his work with Amt D II; that he remembered clearly his visits to Auschwitz in August 1943 and November 1944; and Bergen-Belsen in 1944, and again in 1945. He further testified that during a conversation with Gluecks, the |
